


Barba's Second Shadow

by Tate_Maximoff_Peters



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Barba shadows again, College Student, Exams, F/M, He Just Doesn't Know It Yet, He has a crush, Lawyers, Shadow - Freeform, mentor, the bar
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-10
Updated: 2018-01-25
Packaged: 2018-11-30 13:08:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11464245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tate_Maximoff_Peters/pseuds/Tate_Maximoff_Peters
Summary: It's been a long case for Barba, he just wants to go to his office chair. Fordham Law student, Rose Monroe catches him just before he leaves to ask an important question.





	1. Barba's Second Shadow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This isn't my first rodeo, but I've not written in so long. It feels so foreign. I hope you guys enjoy it!

The courthouse corridors were swarming with the dull humming of voices mingling, and shoes hitting the marble flooring as they walked. If you were close enough; you could hear the faint snapping of a camera lens, but the other sounds ultimately drowned it all out. DA Rafael Barba; hated the sound, it was like if you got too close to a bee hive and heard them all buzzing at once. Luckily, this time; he wasn't in the middle of it, and neither was his client. They were off to the side; thanking the man, and the SVU crew for all of their hardwork. The 'Thank you's' and 'You're welcome's' eventually started drifting off as everyone was making their ways in different directions. Barba knew one thing was for sure; he was ready to go to his office and relax as much as he could.

As he made his way to the elevator, Detective Carisi followed a little ways behind. He heard the sound of high heels shuffling quickly behind him. A voice followed;

"Mr.Barba! Mr.Barba!"

He didn't want to turn; He didn't care at this point what anyone had to say, he wanted to reach the elevator and just go, but she just kept on yelling for him louder and louder. He finally stopped and turned on his heel.

"No autographs, please. I like to stay humble." he replied dryly with a lopsided smirk. As he turned he was met face to face with a young woman; maybe early 20's, almost right in front of him. She walked with confidence, something he admired, but it almost made him laugh that she was still right under his chin in her high heeled shoes. The girl just smirked herself and giggled.

"Don't worry," she replied as she stopped, "I just came to talk.". She held her small pale hand out to the DA and she introduced herself. "My name is Rose Monroe, I am a student of Fordham Law.". Barba knew what she was going to ask and he wasn't a fan. He took her hand in his and shook it.

"Rafael Barba, pleasure, I'm sure." Is all he said before she continued,

"Mr.Barba, I didn't come here today to bother you; I assure you. I have to take the Bar soon and all I ask is that before I do, I get to shadow under someone.". Her voice seemed a bit shaky but still oozed aggressive confidence. While this was impressive; the DA just wasn't having it. He let out a scoff like chuckle,

"You've come to the wrong person, Ms.Monroe." he said as he turned on his heel to head to the elevators. The red head wasn't going to take that for an answer.

"I'm aware this isn't ideal sir, however; I'm in need of a mentor. I heard that Detective Carisi learned a lot from you in that time he was under you. Not only that but he passed." she explained in a calm voice as she started walking with him. He shifted his eyes to her then forward once more.

"Where exactly did you hear that?" He asked.

"Detective Carisi.", she jut a thumb over her shoulder. Barba let out a deep sigh as he finally reached the elevator and pressed the button with his thumb. "You're one of the most genius and hard working DA's I've ever seen sir. It'd be a privelige to learn from you.".

"I'm not disagreeing with you on that, but shadowing; especially for cases like the ones I handle are very streinuous on myself, and right now I have a date with my office chair. The last thing I want to think about is shadowing some kid.".

He looked over at her and saw the determination mixed with raw hope in her eyes. Most of him wanted to say no; he wasn't taking another shadow, but the other half was wanting to see where a girl like this could go with the right shadowing experience. Why should he leave her to go with some other DA who wouldn't teach her anything, or leave her to think corrupt of the law? Barba sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose as his brows furrowed.

"My God." he said aloud before mumbling in Spanish.

Rose shifted her weight excitedly as he inhaled deeply and spoke,

"I'm willing to shadow you. But I'm telling you the same thing I told Carisi; Shadows do not have opinions and they do not speak. When we are in the court room, you only speak to me and I will answer your questions. Is that understood?" He said all of this so quickly Rose didn't exactly process all of it. The elevator dinged and she was soon brought out of her trance. She clasped her hands together tightly;

"Thank you so so much for this Mr.Barba. You have no clue what this means to me. I won't let you down.". She said all of this with a beaming smile that even made Barba have to crack a small one. The genuine joy from something as small as him saying "Ok", even when he was so seemingly strict about it. He just chuckled a bit and steppped into the elevator as the doors opened. He looked at her as she just stood there.

"Are you coming, Ms.Monroe?".

She jumped a little and made her way in quickly; mumbling to herself about how she had to stop being so scatterbrained. The man lightly chuckled before looking at her from the side. "You should come with me to my office just so we can get some more things settled, to give you a feel of how things work. Maybe get some coffee before we go?". She scrunched her face up a bit and giggled,

"I don't drink coffee, sir.".

"Well you do now," he replied while patting her shoulder "You're gonna be a lawyer kiddo, if there's one thing we strive off of; it's coffee.". The elevator doors opened as Barba straightened his tie. He saw the slight disdain on her face as they walked out the door, and this made him full on smile. He noticed as he did this that his previous need for sleep and relaxation was gone. Barba felt like a fire was lit from underneath him, it was the strangest thing. His mind stopped reeling as he heard Rose's voice.

"Maybe I should rethink this." She said playfully as they exited the building.

Barba scoffed, thinking to himself; _'You and me both.'._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Barba is feeling a little bit of a something, maybe he is human after all. One can only hope.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading! Feel free to comment and all that good stuff.


	2. DA in Denial

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The new little shadow around the office has caught Barba's eye, something he continues to deny. How long is she going to last in his line of work?

* _Thunk_ *

Barba’s eyes shot up from their hyperfixation on the case file in front of him, his eyebrows slightly raised over his green eyes. His neutral; almost frowning mouth slightly upturned at the corners when he saw Rose’s head against the wall behind her as she sat on the couch; her eyes closed in exasperation. His smile only got bigger when she mumbled out a small monotone “Ow” before looking over at him.

“I have read this file literally 50 times.” She said with a sigh “The same sentences; same words, it just isn’t sinking in. I am so bored that I’m getting distracted.” Rose had always been inclined to work with music surrounding her. Whether it be through speakers, or a pair of headphones; it was almost essential for her, but obviously she needed to stay sharp and ready for anything Barba was saying to her, or whoever was going to come in for that day. The DA just shrugged and leaned back in his chair, flipping the file closed.

“What? Did you expect to learn all of the information through osmosis?” He teased. Her gray eyes rolled as she stood and stretched.

“Not at all” she retorted “And I would be more enthusiastic about this if I had some music.”

“Other people occupy this building; it would be disturbing for them to have their own clients come in while you’re blasting whatever you listen to.”

“Yes, yes, yes, and I need to be alert at all times to absorb all the information I can. I know, we had that whole big discussion literally the day I started.” The young woman wandered around the office, trying to get the circulation and feeling back into her legs. Barba’s eyes couldn’t help but follow her form as she moved; something he had ended up catching himself doing for the past three days his little shadow had been hanging around.

It started with noticing how different she was compared to when he met her in the courthouse. While they got coffee, he noticed she was very talkative with him, very tongue in cheek, sarcastic, much like him honestly. When she spoke, her hands and body moved about, but her face was very subtle with expressions most of the time; as it depended on who she was talking to. He began to wonder how else she was different, and in doing so noticed she had something about her that never changed; her walk. God, he loved watching her walk. Even if she thought he couldn’t see her; Barba noticed she walked with such constant poise and confidence. It reminded him of a princess, or a dancer; always acting as if the world had its eyes on her. It was nothing more than a morbid curiosity that interested him, nothing romantic or erotic; but that didn’t stop him from blushing every time he caught himself.

The man cleared his throat and filled the few seconds of silence that felt like an eternity spent.

“ ‘Literally’ doesn’t have to be applied to every single sentence you say.” He quipped as he stood. She rolled her eyes over dramatically to signify her teasing, she punctuated it with a smile, which made him feel a tinge of pink overcome his cheeks as he gave her a lopsided smile back. Their small (and possibly fictitious) moment was pulled to a stop when there was a knock on the door. Barba’s head whipped over to the door, immediately answering.

“It’s open!”

In piled the members of SVU; well only a few of them. Lieutenant Benson led Detectives Carisi and Tutuola into the room as she sighed. Barba’s smile turned into a frown as he leaned against his desk

“That doesn’t sound like good news to me, Olivia.”

“Everyone that we’ve talked to cannot testify for Gracelyn” the Lieutenant said in exasperation.

“Cannot? Or will not?” the DA asked. Tutuola stepped in.

“They cannot testify because most of them refused to and the ones that wanted to testify; we will not be having up on the stand.”

Barba looked at them in confusion. Carisi shook his head as he spoke,

“You should’ve heard ‘em, Counselor; talked about this poor girl like she was nothin’ but a dog. We mentioned her name and a group of girls who were supposedly her friends started sayin’ things like ‘She’s nothin’ but a whiny bitch. She has morning after regret and wants to run around like she’s a victim, like she didn’t talk about sex all the time’. That’s probably the nicest thing we heard about her today.”

Barba rubbed his forehead,

“And the grandparents? What did they have to say?”

“Those were the harshest critics of all.” Olivia started. “They both said that Gracelyn had a track record of being a bit boy crazy; had a new crush every week. She always talked about how she wanted to wait until marriage but they said that they knew from her crushes she would break eventually. It didn’t come as a shock to them that she is ‘trying something like this’.”

“So they are trying to say the abuse claims aren’t true, or-?”

“Funny enough, they hated the boyfriend; said they always felt like something was off about him. It even affected Gracelyn, but they just aren’t seeing the blame in the direction of him. It’s all on her.”

“The only people on her side right now are us and her parents.” Tutuola said with a twinge in his voice. Barba shook his own head this time; feeling the stress of the case now piling on top of him and the remorse of the girl, now being pretty much defenseless.

“We’ve gone through tougher cases. We have slivers of evidence; we will start there but I will need to talk to the parents about these circumstances.” Benson nodded, about to grab her phone to make the quick call when Rose, who everyone had pretty much been forgotten in that room from how silent, and away from the group she was; piped up.

“Um, I’m sorry,” she quipped with a bit of a scornful chuckle “so are we just kind of giving up? No one can testify, this little fifteen year old twerp is a real piece of work so we’re just basically throwing in the towel and settling? Really?”

Everyone stopped and stared at the fierce red head, then looked back to the Cuban; awaiting a response. He just took a deep breath before he continued;

“I understand your frustration, however-“ he was immediately cut short by her;

“No, I don’t think you do understand Mr. Barba. That girl is entrusting us with her life at school as well as the one after it. She gave us evidence we needed, she’s obviously struggling with even looking at this boy but because some snot nosed teenagers and unprogressive elderlies are stuck in a certain mindset to prevent them from testifying. We have to pretty much let it slide.”

“Ms. Monroe; while I agree, I’d refrain from making those type of comments when we don’t know everything exactly. Now will you please-“

“Mr. Barba, will you _please_ let me have the upper hand in a conversation just once?!”.

After that sudden outburst, the room was electric with tense silence. Carisi; who had his mouth slightly ajar, just kept it like that for a good while, not daring to make any sort of sound in fear that one of them was going to come unhinged and eat him alive like some sort of animal. Rose panted as they stared each other down; the space between them, though big; full of a mixture of emotions, but mostly anger. Barba finally opened his mouth;

“As of right now, I believe it’s in your best interest to go fetch some coffee Ms. Monroe. The usual place.” He said eerily calm. The young woman grabbed up her phone and jacket in a huff before edging her way out between Benson and Carisi. The detective watched her leave, sighing.

“She can’t go out there alone. I’m taggin’ along, I’ll be back.” Is all the blonde said before rushing after her down the hall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rose has a lot of thinking to do. Hopefully Carisi talks some sense into her.
> 
> Thanks so much for reading! Leave Kudos if you please and even feel free to comment!


	3. Author's Note

Hey everyone! So these past few months have been a lot, and long story short, every time I've tried to focus on my writing (whether it's this or another project) I put WAY too much pressure on myself. That's not good. So I took a little break and came back with a fresh mind and I made the realization that maybe my character, Rose, lacked a bit of depth in her. Even for a character who we will found out about more later on, she's just kinda there. I don't think I'm gonna get rid of the chapters I have but I'm going to be posting different chapters that come before, between and obviously after them. Just to give everyone a bit of a better foot to start on. Thank you for your understanding and for reading.  
  
-Birt 


End file.
